Jaguar, Land Rover’s sister company, has retained top spot for the second year in succession, having ousted Lexus which had reigned supreme for the previous 11 years.

The recovery of the prestige British brand has also been dramatic. In 2004 the luxury car maker came 13th in the survey, two places behind more modest manufacturers such as Skoda, Daihatsu and Proton.

Much of the credit for the resurgence of the British car industry should go to the Japanese who set up plants across England, said Garel Rhys, emeritus professor of motor economics at Cardiff Business School.

“Their quality has been superb,” he said. “This has been taken up by the traditional car makers who have benefited from what has been going on. These are mass-market cars which are now built to go like a clock.”

Land Rovers have taken longer to improve. “It was quite clear that the company’s suppliers were not giving them the quality that they wanted.

“The prices were high and people expected superb quality, which they were not getting. The company was losing customers as fast as they were getting them.”

Land Rover has made a dramatic improvement in the 2013 JD Power customer satisfaction survey, leaping up from 12th last year to 6th place this year

Land Rover improved under Ford and again under Tata, Prof Rhys added. “They have dealt with what they have bought without trying to interfere too much.”

The survey threw up a number of other surprises including the Saab 9-3, a car which is no longer made after company folded, leaping 89 places to 15th place.

Once again Skoda continued to take the laurels with the once- derided Czech manufacturer taking the top two places in the individual model league table. The Skoda Superb took top spot, pipping the Skoda Yeti.

The Volkswagen Fox was voted the best city car, the Citroen DS3 the best supermini, and the Toyota Prius the best small family car.

Other winners included the Jaguar XF, which was voted the best executive car.

At the other end of the league, Alfa Romeo fared particularly badly, with the Italian manufacturer’s Mito plummeting 70 places to sit one off the bottom.

The wooden spoon went to the Chevrolet Spark, which was worst-rated of all the 116 cars in the survey.